Hurtin’ at home: Pinkerton pulls away from Dover girls

Wednesday

Dec 12, 2012 at 3:15 AM

By JOHN DOYLEjdoyle@fosters.com Twitter: @JohnDoyle603

DOVER — On one night, the Dover High School girls basketball team showed a) why they should be able to compete with any of the top teams in Division I and b) that they still have a lot of room for improvement over their next 16 regular-season games.

The Green Wave were right there with Pinkerton Academy early in the third quarter on Tuesday night in their home opener at Ollie Adams Gym, but the visiting Astros clamped down for the remainder of the frame and cruised to a 62-44 win.

“We need to keep pushing through the whole game,” Dover senior co-captain Shannon Goff said. “Start off strong, finish strong, through the whole time, not just bits of it in little stretches.”

The loss dropped Dover to 1-1 while the Astros improved to 2-0. Katie Boyatsis led the Green Wave with 14 points while Goff scored 11 off the bench with three 3-pointers.

“We gave away possessions,” Dover coach Dan Casey said. “Too many unforced turnovers. If we could turn some of those turnovers into quality possessions, we’re right back in the game.”

Boyatsis drove the lane early in the third quarter to cut Pinkerton’s lead to 27-23, after trailing by 15 early in the second. But Pinkerton responded with a 13-0 run over the next three minutes that effectively shut the door on the Green Wave, who were never able to recover.

“They went on their run and we didn’t react well on the floor to it,” Casey said. “We weren’t able to answer.”

Pinkerton’s Valerie Martin led all scorers with 20 points, 15 of which came in the third period. She had three buckets and a free throw during the Astros’ 13-0 run. Colleen Fortier scored 14 for Pinkerton and Brandi Bonneau scored 11.

“We subbed a lot of kids in the first half,” Pinkerton coach John Barry said. “We’re not that deep yet. So when we have our first five or six in there, they play well together, aggressively. They do some smart things. We get a little disoriented. It’s early in the season so you can only get five, six, seven kids ready.”

Dover trailed by as many as 19 points in the third period and never got closer than 13, which came after Molly Wotton converted a 3-point play to cut Pinkerton’s lead to 58-44 with 3:05 remaining in the game.

Dover trailed 14-5 after the first quarter, and a pair of 3-pointers by Pinkerton’s Colleen Fortier in the first minute of the second gave the Astros a 15-point lead.

From there, the Green Wave battled back. Boyatsis and Goff hit baskets and Abby Tilton hit a 3-pointer as Dover went on a 7-2 run. Goff hit the first of her three treys later in the stanza, and Dover scored the final six points to close within 27-21 at halftime.

“There were a lot of positives,” Casey said. “The negatives outweigh them because we lost, but we’re just going to keep working to get better. I think we’re learning to play with each other and overcome adverse situations. Pinkerton’s one of the top teams, but we’re going to fight through the end in every game.”